


The Game of Life

by JustAnAnxiousKid



Series: “The ladies love a guy who’s good with kids” [5]
Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: And Jared, Evan’s a sad boy, I hate writing “OC” because I feel like people hate that, I wrote this because my mom majorly pissed me off the other day, M/M, Oh well!, and he has a pretty rough day, but Jared’s practically family at this point, but his tight knit family helps him to feel better, but it’s Eva!, but yeah, i guess it just be like that sometimes, like I had a full on panic attack in my room at my dads house, she’s little again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 19:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18533866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnAnxiousKid/pseuds/JustAnAnxiousKid
Summary: “Life was a game of war.”





	The Game of Life

**Author's Note:**

> The summary sounds angsty but it’s not that bad. You’ll get it once you start reading.

Not every day would be a good day. It wasn’t a fun fact, but it was a fact nonetheless, and one that Evan had learned pretty early on. 

  
Life had this habit of dragging everything down. Sometimes, you see the most beautiful sunsets, and you feel like everything might just be okay. Like maybe, if he just held on a bit longer, reminded himself to do that everyday, that everything would be just fine.

  
Yet, alas, life was funny.

  
Not funny in the kind of way when you go to see a comedy movie, but funny in the kind of way that you can’t help but look back at everything you’ve gone through and think, “why me?” 

  
Everything felt like a game to Evan. Not a game he understood, oh no. It wasn’t like the soccer  games he played with Jared when both their parents had decided at the age of six that they would have fun playing for the town team. Not even like when he played baseball for half a season before giving up because he was scared he was going to get hit.

  
During tee-ball.

  
When no one’s throwing the ball.

  
Because that’s how that works.

  
No, it wasn’t like those games. It was like a tricky game of cards. The one where you split the deck in half and see who has the higher card. What was that game called? 

  
War.

  
Life was a game of war.

  
It seemed simplistic when you read the rules. Then, you start to dive in, try to do everything you can, and everything goes to... well, shit.

  
You feel like you’re jumping in with an ace, ready to take on anything! Next thing you know, you went to war with two fives and lost your one ace to the other player. Just make Evan player one, and life player two. Always kicking him in the ass.

  
So, yeah, Evan had a bad day.

  
The thing is, it started out great. He woke up next to Connor, and Eva had been sandwiched between them from the night before where she had just insisted on one more bedtime story! That was all she wanted.

  
Well, one turned into two, and two turned into three, and then three turned into four and a half and Eva snoring softly on his lap. So, that’s how the night before went.

  
Back to the morning.

  
Everything was great. He got up, got ready, eventually helped Eva to get up (which she did not like), helped her get dressed, gave Connor a good morning kiss and then headed off to work. Sounded perfect, right?

  
Yeah, remember that whole aforementioned match up where someone losses an ace?

  
Make that into Evan forgetting his umbrella at home, his car running out of gas the second he pulled up to the bakery, and oh yeah. Apparently, both Lisa and Angela were sick, so Evan was working alone.

  
He hated thinking it, but he blamed Jared for the first thing coming to his mind being “useless lesbians”.

  
He supposed Jared had an excuse, though. They were his moms, after all. 

  
See, here’s the thing. Evan would be fine if that had been all. So what if he was a little soaked from the rain? It’s no big deal that his car needed gas. Connor could get some in a gas can and drive it over on his way to pick up Eva from school. Hell, he could even handle running the bakery on his own for the day. It’s not like there was any big orders to take care of.

  
Life just really wanted to screw him over today. 

  
Not only did all of that crap happen, oh no. It could never stop there. There always had to be more stuff on bad days, didn’t there? Like the customer who just had to walk in and complain about how she couldn’t believe her daughters wedding cake had been made by lesbians.

  
Not the word she used, but the word Evan would, because he didn’t like homophobic slurs. Leave it up to your own imagination to think of which the lady decided to use. 

  
She had yelled at him, saying she couldn’t stand what the world was coming to. Telling him how wrong homosexuality was, and how gay people made the choice to not be straight. She sat there and lectured him about how sinful it was, and how God would send every gay person to hell. Told him all of this for at least ten minutes, even though it felt more like an hour. It probably would’ve lasted even longer if he hadn’t tiredly cut her off. 

  
“Ma’am, not only am I Jewish, but I’m married to a man. May you please leave the facility now?”

  
She didn’t like that answer, clearly.

  
It took another fifteen minutes of Evan telling her politely that, _no ma’am, you really have to leave. We don’t tolerate discrimination here. Yes, ma’am, I’m aware that I just said we despite being the only one in the building working._

  
Yeah, that whole kind of situation. The one that left him wanting to cry the second she actually walked out, because he really didn’t need to hear all the stuff she said. What can you do though? The customer's always right.

  
Evan felt tired after that, and every remaining hour of his shift felt the same. The only good thing that had happened since he clocked in was Jared showing up, saying he would handle the rest of the day. 

  
He even only took one cupcake before he left! That was a small victory in itself.

  
On his way out to his car, it dawned on him that he had in fact actually forgotten to text Connor about the gas issue. So, that was great. Taking his phone out of his pocket, he figured he would just ask Connor to do it then, but when he went to turn it on there was another little issue in the way.

  
His phone was dead.

  
At that point, he wasn’t sure he could hold everything in any longer. He went inside to ask Jared to borrow his phone when he was surprised by a car pulling in, honking at him. With tears in his eyes, he turned to see who wanted to bother him now when...

  
“Papa!” Eva squealed, running out of the car and hugging his leg tightly. “Look! Daddy and I came to surprise you at work!”

  
His eyes scanned upward, locking onto his husbands.

  
“By that,” Connor said, picking up a giggling Eva, “she means that she wanted a cupcake.” He finished, kissing him on the cheek gently.

  
“A gazillion cupcakes!” Eva added, squishing his cheeks.

  
The thing was, no matter how bad a day got, Evan knew he had something good to fall back on. Two of the things he had were right in front of him, one smiling from ear to ear and one looking slightly concerned. Sometimes, it was hard to tell if that was just Connor’s resting expression or not.

  
There were so many good things he had in his life. A stable income, a comfortable home, a (very cute) dog, a loving husband, a healthy daughter, and just the greatest family he could ever ask for. 

  
Well, maybe not  _ everything _ . He might have to bring up adoption with Connor one more time. 

  
He was happy with what he had now, though. He didn’t really need anything else to be happy. Of course he had wants, but everyone did. That was normal. Evan could easily be happy with just what he had at the moment, and he would never question it.

Slowly, a smile began to form on his face, and he let out a quiet laugh. Taking Eva from Connor, he kissed the top of her head, smiling contently.

  
“Uncle Jared’s in the bakery, angel. If we don’t hurry up, there won’t be any cupcakes left to eat!” He joked, tucking her hair behind her ears.

  
“No cupcakes?!” She gasped. “We gotta go in!”

  
Walking into the bakery, Evan could say that even if today wasn’t the best, it certainly wasn’t the worst. Watching Eva yell at Jared for biting into a cupcake right as they walked in was the cherry on top, really. 

  
He couldn’t help but laugh at his childhood best friends face of shock when his five year old daughter demanded that she got a cupcake  _ right now!  _ Gently, he held Connor’s hand in his own, and when he looked up to meet an equally amused expression, he could safely say he won the game of war with flying colors.

**Author's Note:**

> See? I told you guys it wasn’t that angsty! When my parents first told me and my brothers they were getting divorced, my dad and I used to sit in his room and play card games. This was one of the games he taught me to play!
> 
> I also play it with my grandmother a lot now. She loves cards and it’s one of the only games she understands how to play.
> 
> Not saying she’s stupid! She’s just used to playing with Italian cards and obviously playing Italian games. It’s hard to explain some stuff to her sometimes.
> 
> I don’t know, I was really mad with my mom so I kind of decided to take my anger out on Evan. But then I was thinking, and I was like, “no, this needs to be soft. I’m gonna make it part of the series.”
> 
> And yeah, here it is.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy the story! I have two others I’m working on that I probably won’t ever finish and obviously I’m working on the next chapter of CTS, it’s just taking a while. I need to find motivation in that story again.
> 
> But I will prevail! I mapped out the rest of the story and what the chapters will have, I just need to write them.
> 
> Either way! Thanks for reading :)
> 
> As always, my instagram is @just.an.anxious.mess and you can feel free to talk to me there! I am a bit awkward though so I might be weird, sorry.
> 
> Sincerely, me.


End file.
